Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Secret religious right Facebook group plotting cyber attack on gay community

Based upon information I received from an anonymous source, there is a project afoot by members of the religious right to strike at the gay community via sites like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

This project is conducted by a secret Facebook group called Truth4Time. According to the creator of the group (whose name shall remain anonymous because he is not a public figure), Truth4Timeis supposed to be a library of anti-gay articles, blogs, and other materials for its members to use in their fight against the supposed "gay agenda." Apparently the group has a large lists of documents which contains anti-gay information (i.e. propaganda) that members are invited to use. The founder says that the group is supposed to be a sort of a "behind the scenes support system for the religious right. He seems to think that he is on some type of divine mission. If that is the case, I seriously doubt that it is God who is dictating his marching orders. :

In all fairness, the group isn't breaking any rules (or any laws) with this idea. Members of Truth4Time also encourage each other to go on webpages featuring anti-gay or pro-gay articles and freely comment. Some members of this group who have written columns in publications such as the conservative Town Hall also encourage fellow members to bombard the prospective sites with comments:

Again, the group isn't breaking any rules or laws by doing this.

But it is the following questionable tactics, such as "ganging up" on pro-gay pages with comments and flagging Facebook pro-gay pages multiple times with the intent on getting these pages removed, which is sure to raise eyebrows. Truth4Time seems to be under the ludicrous impression that gays stoop to this action, so they figure "what's good for the goose is sauce for the gander:"

One member of the group, a certain Georgia pastor (who has a long history of maligning the gay community) provides tips on what he calls "leveraging public perception on the subject of homosexuality," or in layman's terms, providing an inaccurate picture of whether or not there is support for lgbt equality:

And just who are the members of this group you ask? I have the list of the members, but I won't reveal it because many are ordinary citizens, not public figures.

However, that's not to say that Truth4Time does not many contain public figures and prominent members of the anti-gay industry, including:

a Fox News pundit,

former employees of Concerned Women for America and The Family Research Council,

a prominent member of the American Family Association,

long term anti-gay activists, including those who testified in front of Congress,

prominent members of the so-called "ex-gay" movement,

a member of a state legislature,

college professors from right-wing universities,

activists who have called for laws declaring homosexuality illegal,

members of a prominent anti-gay marriage equality group, and

various religious right talking heads who us bloggers have had to refute many times in the past.

I should also add that I did not steal this information. A member of the group - who has been disturbed by the comments and plans of this group - freely gave me this information. The member in question was especially disturbed by a plan (whether it will come to fruition or not) to bombard physicians and school boards with negative and distorted information about the gay community:

Gayterribletruth is a quackery webpage. It's filled with headlines implying that gay men are beset with all sorts of awful diseases due to their orientations alone. However, if one took the time to read several of the articles, they clearly demonstrate that the bad health besetting these gay men have less to do with their orientation and more to do with how homophobia leads to their poor health choices. And other headlines lead to biased religious right articles on the gay community.

Studies already show that the gay community faces negative health problems in part due to the perceived homophobia of their health physicians. Information such as this sent out to physicians can only serve to exacerbate this problems.

And I don't think that I have to mention what would happen to gay youth if at least one school board takes this information as fact.

One hilarious thing about Truth4Time is how members absolutely despise Joe Jervis of the famous blog Joe.My.God (which of course makes me jealous as hell). Many members of the right have been on a tear against Jervis since he won the GLAAD Blogger of the Year award two years ago. Also Jervis has never been known to mince words when it comes to confronting members of the religious right. Naturally that drives them nuts:

I omitted the post in which members speculated whether or not Satan whispers in Jervis' ear.

Lastly, according to my source - the member of the group who gave me this information - several members have a serious hang up about "gay sex" like such:

While I am not an armchair psychiatrist, that last point brings to mind the recent study which says that those who speak out the loudest against homosexuality are secretly gay themselves.

But there is something else you should know. According to my source, there is one other secret Facebook group like this one which refers to the gay community in a viler language. And a few folks from Truth4Time are members of that group.

While it is not my intent to make the gay community paranoid as to the plots of the religious right, I am a firm believer of knowing all you can about those who designate themselves as your enemies.

Perhaps it's time for members of the gay community to stop laughing some of these folks off as mere homophobes and take into account the depths they will stoop to in their homophobia.

After all, you never know who is lurking on Facebook.

Editor's note - I deliberately obscured all the names in the listed graphics because the comments of private citizens are mingled with those of religious right public figures. I thought it would be best to be consistent and obscure all of the names.

Since you list a few politicians and public figures you should at least name names for them.

And the theory that because they are private citizens you won't post their names is ludicrous. Look, the minute they decided to become active in this little cabal they gave up any expectation of privacy. In fact I would say that all of us have no privacy anymore. Between public record searches, voter databases, etc. you cannot expect it.

It is interesting for sometime now I as well go to relgious right and ex-gay sites and pose questions and refute some of the things they say and do. So they are doing some of the same things back well this I hope will bring forth some dialogue that needs to happen but sadly doubt that will actually occur.

Because I follow the exchanges too, I can easily make a list of the "names" , not the actual people for they rarely use authentic names/pics, that are the CRAZIEST. They repeat completely insane things as if they were true. THe ability to do critical thinking is low to absent. I particularly LOVE the comment about being handed info at conferences to "jam". I ONLY read about "jamming" on conservative sources.The paranoia is comical. Nice job on getting this out. I am in one closed group and am so amused to read what they think. I wish all votes for civil rights were done in the courts and not by popular vote. Folks like these people do not educate themselves on issues, they just pass around junk.

I really think you should release the names of public figures. At least the ones in media, and political offices. People need to know, what if the state official is in my state and I could vote out the bigot?

I follow a lot of pro-gay pages on FB and am an active member of HRC, so let's be honest. It isn't ludicrous to say that LGBT activists use these tactics. That's the whole point of the popular and successful Whipeout Homophobia on FaceBook page. While group members are not encouraged to spam hate pages, or engage with haters in any way, we do report them as often as possible to get them shut down. Since the right considers HRC to be a hate group, it's not surprising that they would do the same thing. The difference is that FB takes down the hate pages because they violate its terms of use, while no amount of frantic reporting of pro-gay pages has any effect whatsoever. They simply aren't hurting anyone.

So both sides are absolutely using the same tactics. Only, the haters are lying and inciting violence toward the innocent. That's why they're going to lose, one ignored FB report at a time.

The use of the term "homosexualists" is a telling one, and certainly has its roots in the creation of a Straw Man Argument. Cynthia Eller pulled the same crap when she coined the term "feminist matriarchalists" to define any scholar or researcher who did not hold her scholastically extremist views in her polemic: "The Myth of Matriarchy: Why An Invented Past Will Never Give Women a Future". Also, I smell the distinct hand of NOM behind the curtains, here! Remember, they were, at one time, going to launch an anti-Gay vicious assault on-line in such a way that it could not be linked directly with NOM (prizes would be awarded). Though, the RC Church is also influential to an extent, considering his talk of "sexual morality" as an allegedly "traditional (American?) value"; a talking point that Maggie Gallagher insists upon as well. Personally, I am curious, though, about how they might react--what they might post--to counter academic history and ethnographic evidentiary facts that they cannot reconcile with?!

Please do let me know, Alvin, if they should want to target my own Gay Rights Blog. And, as for the second respondent in your second screen cap, they almost certainly would never be fine if we put our selves back in the Closet and would keep making demands of us, so that we'd appear "societally acceptable" to them. They really are Ego-centric and cannot seem to comprehend that we are trying to make the world a better place FR their "kids", should they be Gay.

"...a non-stop thing"?! Couldn't he have thought of a proper noun or verb?!

However, Alvin, if public officials are engaged with this group, especially an affiliate of NOM, than one ought to expose them as such.

I am NOT an attorney, so please do run this by one. BUT, I think you are mistaken about whether there is a legal problem publishing the names of individuals. Certainly, particularly with non-public private people, you cannot make FALSE accusations and tell lies -- that is potential libelous and might subject you to claims.

HOWEVER, telling the truth, Per Se, is ALWAYS protected speech. Stating someone's name associated with their own words and conduct, is completely protected too.

Sing their names for the whole world to see what homophobic bigots are up to. And, just be sure that your labeling as "homophobic bigots" is an OPINION of yours, not a statement of fact.

EXPOSE THESE EVIL BASTARDS -- that is, IMHO, these homophobic bigots are bastards.

I'm all for revealing this kind of thing (though I confess for a moment I thought this might be just conspiracy theory!), and it doesn't change any of my beliefs or feelings on the need for secular, logical, reasoned thought in society, I do wonder about the middle of this post about "ganging up".

In all fairness, that is a tactic well known pro-gay groups like Wipeout Homophobia on Facebook use to great effect, and justifiably so, so I don't think we can reasonably look down on these guys for trying the same. Its basically the online version of lobbying.

That doesn't change the ridiculousness of the content of these images in the least, but at least these guys are eloquent bigots, rather than the raving religious loonies we usually get!

Obscuring the IDs was a smart move on Alvin's part. He has received this information 2nd hand. Unless he had the opportunity to actually be logged into the group - and to verify that the profiles he was seeing did, in fact, belong to the individuals they claimed to - he could face serious legal trouble if his source was just trying to set him up with bad info/doctored screen shots.

How many asking Alvin to release the names are also willing to pay for his defense fund when he's slapped with a libel suit if it turns out the information he was given was false? I certainly can't afford to fund it... can you?

I was just pondering some old research I did for college about homophobia and remembered a website that popped up when I googled the term. Well, I decided to do this again this morning and lo and behold there it was. It is the site for the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas and their web address is actually www.godhatesfags.com . I have never in my life read such horrible rambling. That they are allowed to puplicly spew such vitriol and hatred astounds me. Yes, freedom of speach etc yada yada yada but this borders on criminal. They show a picture of that poor lad Matthew Sheppard who was beaten, tied to fence and left to die because of his sexuality as the "poster boy" of why god hates fags. Ok all you professional hackers out there, somebody freaking shut these units down. Sick, stupid, hate filled bigots, religious self centred asswipes who denigrate anyone who does not believe in their hate filled god. No wonder I am an athiest.

It's hilarious that these people think a physician, someone with at least seven years of professional school, would look to their inbox and even open their spam.

These folks, if they exist, are breaking the rules. The are hacking. They're colluding to use these services contrary to how they were intended; flagging for no reason, liking things they haven't watched, forming hoards to attack message boards.

Thanks for posting this! In these culture wars, to be warned is to be armed.

I agree with your hiding names because, as Rae said, you can't be sure that the people are who they purport to be. With their unlimited money for lawyers and fetish for litigation, the anti-gay industry will attempt to "get" you, even if they know they can't succeed. You're far safer this way. And, anyway, while the anti-gay industry doesn't hesitate to out anyone they consider an enemy, I'd like to think we're better than that.

One last point: Shocking as this is, it isn't new: Anti-gay activists have been sharing this sort of information through rightwing sites for years, which is one of the reasons their rhetoric and talking points are all the same. What IS different is that this is the first evidence I've seen of orchestrated campaigns organised in secret.

Well done—and special thanks to your source for doing the correct and courageous thing!

The campaign seems to be linked to http://www.profamilyfreedom.net/“Pro family freedom” – what? So hating people you don’t know is protecting your family. I beg to differ, I feel sorry for the children these psychos have

Many thanks Alvin.I don't do Facebook much. I do however spend significant time at Mercatornet.com fighting the anti gays over there, mostly all Catholics.

You appear to me to be a very intelligent man so you have thought through your reasons for not publishing the names, and what your options are. Hell I bet Joe Jerves would take that off your hands and publish if you gave it to him, LOL! You have thought this through and I respect your decision.

I have read your blog from time to time but I think I better read you regularly. Many thanks Alvin and keep up the excellent work.StraightGrandmother

Can you please provide solid evidence that they're intent is to "cyberattack gay sites?" We go on their conservative sites and post all the time and they seem to be showing up more. Also, you said that their library is full of propaganda. What is in their library? Can you show us specific examples and what makes it propaganda? I was looking through that gayterribletruth site, and I don't see how we can blame healthcare for all of those medical problems. Not too many doctors ask or need to ask who we slept with when getting tested or treated for those illnesses. And how can you prove that they are obsessed mostly with JoeMyGod by just showing one comment that was made by him. I marched for gay marriage in Massachsetts and when I see articles like this, it makes me wonder if I'm fighting for the right side...

With all due respect, anonymous, I have a hard time believing you. Simply because in spite of what your trepidations about my post, I have a heard time believing that you would automatically believe that your espousal of gay equality is suddenly wrong.

And the queer community has been trying to silence anyone who speaks out against their precious perversion for years. You can try but we will not be silenced. You go ahead and cry and whine like the babies you are...it's something you are actually good at.

SOOOO in the same comment, you claim that we are bullies but then you hint about our so-called "perversions." You obviously have no idea of what happens when the pot meets the kettle. To be truthful, we don't care how much noise you make as long as we gain and keep equality. And we will.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 44-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Newsweek, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,and a present contributor to Justice For All, Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org.
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a two-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.